Leviticus 9:13

Summary

The verse describes Aaron's sons bringing him the pieces of the burnt offering, including the head, and Aaron then burning all of it on the altar. The action follows the ritual butchering and completes the ‘olah offering by turning it into smoke.

Key words

• 'olah ("burnt offering", H5930A) — feminine singular noun, placed at the very front of the clause (before its own verb), marking it as the topic being handled in this step of the ritual.
• himtzi'u ("they brought forward", H4672) — hiphil (causative) perfect, third person plural. The verb's base sense is "to find/reach"; in the causative stem it denotes causing the offering to arrive at/reach Aaron, rendered contextually as "presented" or "brought."
• netachim ("pieces", H5409) — masculine plural noun in construct form ("pieces of…"), linked to a pronominal suffix referring back to the burnt offering, specifying that the animal was divided before presentation.
• rosh ("head", H7218A) — masculine singular noun, listed separately from the "pieces," marked with its own direct object marker, showing it is treated as a distinct item alongside the dismembered body.
• yaqter ("he made [it] smoke", H6999A) — hiphil narrative form (with narrative vav), third person singular. The causative stem indicates the action of turning the offering into smoke, rather than simply "burning" it.

What the text says

The clause opens with the direct object 'olah ("the burnt offering") fronted before its verb himtzi'u ("they brought forward"), a word order that highlights the burnt offering as the item now being handled, distinguishing this step from previous actions in the chapter. The subject of himtzi'u is unstated but grammatically plural ("they"), understood from context as Aaron's sons, who bring the offering 'elav ("to him," i.e., to Aaron).

The offering arrives in two described components: netach-eiha ("its pieces," construct plural with feminine suffix agreeing with 'olah) and, separately marked with its own object marker, ha-rosh ("the head"). This grammatical separation of "pieces" from "head" mirrors the sacrificial procedure of dismembering the animal before it is placed on the altar.

The final action shifts to Aaron as subject via the narrative vav construction va-yaqter ("and he made [it] smoke"), a hiphil form built on the root qatar — literally "to cause to smoke." This causative nuance frames the priestly act not merely as "burning" but as producing the sacrificial smoke that rises from the altar.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew himtzi'u ("they caused [it] to reach/arrive," H4672) is rendered by the LXX as prosēnegkan ("they brought/offered") and by the Vulgate as obtulerunt ("they offered"), both using standard offering-verbs rather than reflecting the literal "cause to find/reach" sense embedded in the Hebrew causative stem.